Wednesday, 9 August 2017

Cantanhede Motorcycle Museum

After
Luxembourg on the Buell the 2CV World meeting was soon upon me and a
trip to Portugal in my little car was completed. It was not without
drama with the car leaving an oil slick in Portugal and the need to
replace an engine oil seal on the campsite. Having fixed that the
rocker box seals started leaking from the new found crankcase
pressure. Moving on to a better experiences I finally read my holiday
book on the way back. This was another Zoe Cano book “Southern
Escapades” and her experiences in Florida and Alabama. A charming
book that reminded me of my visit to Orlando and Daytona beach in
2003 also for the Biketoberfest. My plan while in Portugal was to
find a bike Museum to visit. There was supposed to be one in Lisbon
but I could find no information on that and the other was tracked
down on the internet looking through the Bike Museums in Europe
website.

There is one in Cantanhede which is about 18 miles to the
north west of Coimbra. Coimbra is full of respected Medical and
Scientific Universities which makes it historically interesting but
as there are so many students there food and beer are relatively
cheap. I only had a one night stop there and the reason for the stop
was the Ibis hotel that had secure underground parking. My car has a
ragtop and was full of camping gear and stuff so overnight away from
prying eyes is a good move. My visit to this private collection was
after 6pm in the evening after the owner had finished work. Was an
interesting place to find in that the town was hosting a County Fair
so the place was full of people and traffic. After a few phone calls
we met up and I was directed into a pedestrian area top park the car
outside of the anonymous looking building.

Henrique and Pedro

We received a very
friendly greeting from Pedro Martins, whose English is extremely good
, and Henrique Eqbral, the owner of the collection, who then took us
around with Pedro interpreting. Paul Diniz, another member of the
team, arrived almost at the end of the visit. It was a delight of
Italian motorcycles with all the ones you can think of, Aprilla,
Benelli, Cagiva, Ducati, Gilera, Harley Davidson (Aermacci), Laverda, Mondial
and MV Augusta. I like the lightweights like the Desmo 250 Ducatis,
the style of the 175 Gileras and MVs but the Mondial 250 dohc models
take the award.

Have you seen one of these before? Henrique has five of the six in Portugal!!!

Henriques passion is for Italian motorcycles but he
also has an appreciation for British motorcycles and has a selection
of Panther’s, BSA’s, a Royal Enfield or two and a couple of OK
Supremes. One of which is his favourite that he gets to take out
regularly.

The evening passed by very quickly with discussions about
why the British Motorcycle industry failed and how to approach
restorations. I had a great time and need to return, perhaps next
year with one of my Velocettes to be a part of their motorcycling
scene. If you get the chance it is a great place to visit, not only
Portugal but this museum, a tribute to Italian motorcycles.